Since the 1980s, ethnic segregation has become a feature of the educational landscape in many European countries. The article explores how school choice has influenced this stratification in Dutch primary schools. In contrast to earlier research, the authors found that the ethnic composition of schools plays an important role in the school choice of parents. The study shows that native Dutch parents are significantly more interested in a match between their social and cultural background and the pupil composition of schools than ethnic minority parents. Minority parents prefer schools with a good reputation and that focus on their educational problems (e.g., learning proper Dutch). Both groups of parents generally reject predominately "non-White" schools. The authors also found other factors influencing the segregation patterns of schools (e.g., competition between schools and admission policies).

The results of a nationwide study of the citizenship competences of adolescents in the Netherlands are presented from the perspective of democratic citizenship in this article. Citizenship competences are defined as the knowledge, skills, attitudes and reflection needed by young people in a democratic and multicultural society to adequately fulfil social tasks that are part of their daily lives. The Citizenship Competences Questionnaire was administered to 16,000 adolescents in either sixth or ninth grade. With the help of analyses of variance and partial correlations, background factors related to the students and the environment were analysed in conjunction with each other. The results showed significant differences in citizenship competences to depend upon the gender, age, cognitive level, socioeconomic status and ethnic backgrounds of the adolescents in addition to the degree of urbanisation characteristic of their school environments. The findings are discussed in light of research previously conducted on the citizenship of young people.

Citizenship has recently been introduced into the educational curriculum. Instruments to determine the effects of citizenship education are scarce. In this article, the concept of citizenship competences is explored in order to develop a measurement instrument. Four social tasks were derived from the literature as representative of young people's citizenship practices: acting democratically, acting in a socially responsible manner, dealing with conflicts, and dealing with differences. What adequate fulfilment of each social task presupposes in terms of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and reflection is defined per task and operationalised into items for a questionnaire. The sample (N = 16,000) concerns a representative sample of students in grade 6 and grade 9. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which the structure in the data corresponded to the structure expected on theoretical grounds. The study reveals a reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of young people's citizenship competences. Future research should provide insight into how these competences relate to citizenship behaviour and whether measures of citizenship competences and behaviour will help schools to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts.

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